World War II officially ended at 9:25 a.m. Japan Standard Time during the surrender ceremony aboard USS Missouri.
The ceremony began shortly after 9 a.m. on September 2, 1945. Mamoru Shigemitsu signed at about 9:04, Yoshijirō Umezu at 9:06, and Douglas MacArthur accepted the surrender at 9:08. Allied representatives then signed one after another, with the final signatures completed before the proceedings closed.
The 9:25 time marks the conclusion of the formal surrender ceremony, not the moment Japan first decided to surrender. Japan’s political decision followed the emperor’s intervention in August, and Hirohito’s radio announcement reached the public on August 15. The September ceremony converted that decision into a signed international instrument.
Time references can vary slightly in popular accounts because some sources round the ceremony’s beginning to 9 a.m. and use local time without naming the time zone. The commonly cited official completion time is 9:25 a.m. Japan Standard Time, on September 2, 1945.